Abstract

As the first necessity of mankind, food is especially important in international trade and exchange, and its slogan has its own distinctive characteristics. The translation of food advertisements plays a vital role in promoting food and expanding international markets. However, the current situation of food advertisements translation is not optimistic, and the translation quality varies greatly, which severely weaken the persuasion function of advertising, also affect the promotion and marketing of goods. Therefore, based on the analysis of Thomas’ pragmatic failure theory, combined with the translation of food advertising, this paper elaborated the two kinds of pragmatic failures: pragmalinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure, discussed from the angle of language and culture the deep reasons resulting in these failures, and finally explored the corresponding food advertising translation strategies and methods, in order to find the countermeasures or approaches to avoid these errors. This research will help the translator improve the quality of advertising translation and enhance the influence of advertising on consumers and promote the development of international trade.

Key Words: food advertisement translation; pragmatic failure; culture difference; translation strategy

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1 Introduction-1

2 Literature Review-2

2.1 The Previous study of Advertisement Translation-2

2.2 Previous Studies on Pragmatic failure-3

3 An Introduction to Food Advertisement-3

3.1 The Definition of Advertisement-4

3.2 The Linguistic Features of Advertisement-4

3.2.1 The Lexical Features of Advertisement Language-5

3.2.2 The Syntactic Features of Advertisement Language-6

3.2.3 The Rhetorical Features of Advertisement Language-7

3.3 The Functions of Advertisement-7

3.4 Food Advertisement Translation-8

4 The Pragmatic Failures and Their Causes-9

4.1 Pragmalinguistic Failures and Their Causes-9

4.1.1 Pragmalinguistic Failures-9

4.1.2 Causes of Pragmalinguistic Failure-10

4.2 Sociopragmatic Failures and Their Causes-11

4.2.1 Sociopragmatic Failures-11

4.2.2 Causes of Sociopragmatic Failures-11

5 The Countermeasures against Pragmatic Failures-13

5.1 Consolidating the Basic Knowledge-13

5.1.1 The Accumulation of Words-14

5.1.2 The Study of Translation Strategy-14

5.2 Strengthening Cross-culture Awareness-15

5.2.1 Conforming to the Values of the Target Language-16

5.2.2 Conforming to the Way of Thinking in the Target Language-16

5.3 Improving the Supervision in the Translation Industry-16

6 Conclusion-17

References-18